San Quintin

Highway 1 leaves Ensenada and heads south, the only main artery to extend the length of the Baja Peninsula. The real journey begins after cresting the hills and beginning the descent into the Valle Santo Tomas. (*Adventurers with sturdy cars might want to take the 45-minute dirt-road trip from here to the west, to La Bocana fishing village. About 3-4 miles north of the village is a cluster of shanty-shacks and a panga-boat harbor: Here, fishermen can be hired to scout out everything from crab, to scallops, to lobsters for a reasonable price). From this point on, the vistas are of mountains, vineyards, little hamlets and, eventually, farms for cactus, strawberries, tomatoes and peppers. This is the north-central part of Baja and you have entered the San Quintín Valley, which is basically the vegetable garden of Baja California. San Quintín, approximately 120 miles south of Ensenada, was established in late 1800s by an English company interested in growing wheat -- not a long-lived venture, given the dry conditions of the region. The wheat fields were constantly destroyed by drought, and the experiment died. In more recent – and far more successful –MORE